Interview with Annabel Karmel: Show Me the Veggies

Interview with Annabel Karmel: Show Me the Veggies

Recently, bookshelves have become inundated with cookbooks that are designed to hide healthy food in your child’s meals.

From Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious to Missy Chase Lapine’s The Sneaky Chef, the books advocate pureeing fruits and vegetables and mixing them into recipes to ensure that children get all of their nutrients.

As the author of 15 books on getting children to eat healthy, fresh food, we were sure to ask Annabel Karmel about this trend. To see what she said, read more.

While she says it's OK to hide healthy food on occasion, she believes that disguising food makes children think there is something wrong with it. So she opts for recipes that present the healthy ingredients in recipes children already like.

One of my four kids favourite meals is a "dip dinner". We go to the grocery store and buy all the veggies we can find, and I prepare a huge tray that fills the centre of the dining room table. I add hardboiled eggs, cheese slices, melon chunks, clementine pieces and meat slices for Dad. The kids can take the veggies they're interested in and pour their own dip. Over time, they're willing to try different things as they have the sense that if they take a veggie piece, it isn't the only thing they're getting to eat. If they don't like it, they can try anything else.
Also, parents have to set an example. My husband went through a phase where he loved to joke that he wouldn't eat tomatoes because "they grow in dirt". My sons, who loved tomatoes, both stopped eating them. My husband now limits his comedy routines at the table, whilst eating his tomatoes.

One of my four kids favourite meals is a "dip dinner". We go to the grocery store and buy all the veggies we can find, and I prepare a huge tray that fills the centre of the dining room table. I add hardboiled eggs, cheese slices, melon chunks, clementine pieces and meat slices for Dad. The kids can take the veggies they're interested in and pour their own dip. Over time, they're willing to try different things as they have the sense that if they take a veggie piece, it isn't the only thing they're getting to eat. If they don't like it, they can try anything else.Also, parents have to set an example. My husband went through a phase where he loved to joke that he wouldn't eat tomatoes because "they grow in dirt". My sons, who loved tomatoes, both stopped eating them. My husband now limits his comedy routines at the table, whilst eating his tomatoes.

I have 3 kids and I make them try a bite everything and if they don't like it fine they don't have to eat it, they have to try it everytime we have it and guess what it works. They love veggies (brussel sprouts etc all of them)! All different kinds of foods. Quit making a separate meal for your kids! Honestly!!